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Congress Confirms the Army’s first Lead Special Trial Counsel

By U.S. Army Public AffairsDecember 5, 2022

WASHINGTON – Col. Warren L. Wells was nominated by the Secretary of the Army and confirmed by the U.S. Senate last week, for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, to serve as the Army’s Lead Special Trial Counsel. In this position, he will report to the Secretary of the Army, as directed in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

“We are restructuring the way the Army prosecutes perpetrators of covered offenses such as murder, rape, and sexual assaults,” said Secretary of the Army Christine E. Wormuth. “As Army’s Lead Special Trial Counsel, Col. Wells is the experienced leader the Army needs to lead the Office of Special Trial Counsel and ensure its independent oversight of the Army’s most complex cases.”

The Army will assign over 150 civilian and military personnel, who specialize in litigation, to staff the Office of the Special Trial Council when fully operational in December 2023. The OSTC will have exclusive authority to prosecute the following offenses: murder, manslaughter, rape and sexual assault, rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, other sexual misconduct, kidnapping, domestic violence, stalking, retaliation, child pornography and wrongful broadcast.

The OSTC complements numerous additional ongoing efforts to drive structural and cultural change to reduce harmful behaviors in the Army.

For more information on the establishment of the OSTC, please view Army General Order 2022-10, Establishment of the U.S. Army Office of the Special Trial Counsel, at the Army Publishing Directorate website at https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN35817-AGO_2022-10-000-WEB-1.pdf.

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